Bristol Bay's Sockeye Harvest Hits 4-Million

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game reports that another 725.5-thousand sockeye were harvested bay-wide on Monday to push the season total to just over 4-million.

The catch in the Egegik District Monday was just under 194-thousand fish to push the District total to over 1.6-million. Monday’s catch in the Ugashik District was 295.2-thousand to push the season total to over 952.8-thousand fish. The catch in the Naknek-Kvichak District was 135.5-thousand to push the season total to 906-thousand. In the Nushagak District the catch was 100.7-thousand sockeye to push the district total to nearly 463-thousand fish. Fish and Game is not yet reporting any harvest in the Togiak District.

Now looking at escapement. 14.9-thousand sockeye were counted as escapement to the Egegik River to push the season total to over 358-thousand fish. Fish and Game is estimating that there are another 25-thousand sockeye in the Egegik River that have not yet been counted as escapement. In the Naknek-Kvichak District there were 55.4-thousand sockeye counted as escapement to the Kvichak River to push the season total to nearly 68-thousand sockeye. Fish and Game is estimating that there are nearly 150-thousand sockeye in the Kvichak River that have not yet been counted as escapement. Monday’s escapement to the Naknek River was 26-thousand sockeye, which pushes the season total to 146.6-thousand fish. Sockeye escapement to the Wood River in the Nushagak District totaled nearly 109-thousand on Monday to push the season total to 599.6-thousand. Another 85-thousand sockeye were counted as escapement to the Nushagak River to push the total to 547.4-thousand sockeye. The Nushagak River is the first river in Bristol Bay to reach its escapement goal. Monday was the first day of counting escapement to the Igushik River and the daily count was 51.8-thousand. The counting towers on the Ugashik River are expected to operational on Wednesday and the counting towers on the Togiak River will go up early next month.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game reports that on Monday there were on average 1,109 sockeye per drift delivery in the Ugashik District. The number was 434 in the Egegik District and it was 275 in the Naknek-Kvichak District. The number was 221 in the Nushagak District and 96 in the Togiak District.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game reports that as of 9-am Tuesday there were just over 1-thousand drift permit holders registered to fish in Bristol Bay. That’s expected to increase to 1,193 in 2 days. Currently there are 833 drift vessels registered to fish but that’s expected to jump up to 980 vessels in 48-hours. Currently there are 168 D-boats registered and that’s expected to increase up to 213 in 48-hours.